Arizona’s loss to BYU this past weekend still stings for head coach Tommy Lloyd, but for more than what happened on the court.
Immediately following the Cougars’ dramatic one-point victory, Arizona’s student section began a profane chant directed at members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as BYU players headed to the locker room.
Additionally, other fans were captured on video yelling homophobic slurs and other various insults at Cougar players.
Arizona vice president and director of athletics Desireé Reed-Francois offered an apology shortly following the contest, and now Lloyd has commented on the controversy as well.
“I’ve competed against BYU for years and I really enjoy doing that,” Lloyd told reporters Tuesday. “My biggest disappointment was the way our fans and students reacted to some of their players coming off the court. There’s no place in society, let’s just start with that overall, but especially in collegiate athletics where anyone’s religion or race should become a focal point ever. So that was my biggest disappointment.”
As previously reported by the Deseret News, the exact same chant from Wildcat fans was used earlier this year when BYU visited Providence and has also surfaced at road football games against USC and Oregon in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Videos of the chant at Arizona have received more than 2 million collective views on social media.
“It’s not the first time it’s happened to (BYU) and it’s disappointing that it continues to happen,” Lloyd said. “Hopefully with us being full-time members in a conference with them, that our fans will learn that that’s just not acceptable.
“So to me, that was the overriding disappointment, more than just the result of the game. Hopefully it’s an opportunity to be better and do better and we all take it as that.”
On Sunday, the United Jewish Federation of Utah issued a statement condemning the “derogatory chants,” as previously reported by the Deseret News.
“Such incidents are unacceptable and have no place in our society,” part of the statement read. “They not only harm the targeted community but also undermine the principles of respect and unity that bind us together.”
In addition to sharing Arizona’s formal apology, Lloyd said Reed-Francois will be “handling” conversations with student section officials regarding the behavior.
“I know it’s been dealt with in a number of ways, but it still doesn’t erase that it happened,” Lloyd said. “Let’s learn from it and move forward. Every person ... deserves respect, and obviously that was not a sign of respect.”